Editor:
There is so much misinformation being spread by the first-past-the-post side in this referendum campaign. I, too, grew up in a country with proportional representation: Germany.
Rather than extremist groups taking over, or minority governments ruling, proportional representation has lead to stable coalition governments in that country over many decades.
Contrary to what the FPTP side wants us to believe, the exact boundaries of election districts don’t really matter because every vote counts and the final composition of government is determined by the number of votes each party received. Gerrymandering – the deliberate redrawing of voting district boundaries to favour one political party over another – only works in the FPTP system.
Every voting district also still has a directly elected MLA who will work for his or her constituents just as in our present system. But the second MLA is determined via the proportional amount of votes for a political party to ensure that the overall composition of government truly reflects the wish of the population.
PR is a much more democratic system, and it is actually more of a safeguard against someone chosen by a third or less of the electorate ruling the country as only a dictator would. We have seen too much of that in Canada in recent history.
Renate Kroesa, Halfmoon Bay
